The Red House

I have at last finished a major project which I have been working on all summer. It brings together my feelings about losing the family home and garden as my mother has moved into a care home and brings together my mother's favoured technique of cross stitch and my love of collage and using old bits and pieces. The cross stitch is not up to her standard but it is my way as I did not want to work on a grid.
This has been my year of exploring cross stitch and mixing it in to my work and there is more to come.

Seed heads

The seed heads in the hedgerows are so pretty now mixed in with a bit of green  till everything gets a bit limp and dead looking. Seed heads have been the inspiration for one of my most popular workshops and both dates for my Seed Heads courses have been fully booked for 6 months. Today though I heard that another user had cancelled their booking on the space where I teach so I am now able to offer a new date, Saturday 20th October. The course is £50 incl materials and will take place at The Hearth, Horsley 10-4.
Today is the first day I have advertised it so there are plenty of spaces.
Full details of the course are on my website HERE and please contact me there for information on how to pay.

Revisiitng the maidens

I was so pleased to yesterday return to Old St Stephens, Fylingdales. This perfect little church on a headland overlooking Robin Hood's Bay was so inspirational to me 10 years ago and I had a solo exhibition in the church in response to the Maiden's Garlands which are still hanging at the back of the church. My exhibition work can be seen HERE.
Nothing has changed and I was amazed to see that a replica garland I made then is still hanging at the front of the church and is ageing nicely. Hope it will still be there in 100 years time along with those of the four dead girls. If you are in North Yorkshire do go and visit the info is HERE

The four maiden's garlands

My maiden's garland hanging in the church for the last 10 years

view from the pulpit

Elizabeth Harland's grave. One of the garlands was made for her

Don't let the seagulls eat your chips if you are on holiday this week! I am  busy gathering things together to teach 2 weeks of summer schools at my studio in Northumberland. This is the first time I have done this since I used to teach print making summer schools 10 years ago and if it works well I may concentrate on running more longer  blocks of tuition as I know many of you who are abroad would like to participate. Anyway here is a textile seagull and a print making one too to keep you in the summer mood.

Wheatear

I love Wheatear stitch and the hedgerows and fields are rich with flowers and grasses despite the drought. In the north we have had the odd dull day and even a little rain which has helped to make this perhaps the best summer for a long time. Looking forward to teaching two weeks of Hedgerow to my summer schoolers.

Fleurs d'après Breughel

Have finished this piece recently. As you know I like to use old things, gifted items and charity shop finds and this is a charity shop unfinished tapestry which I have worked into with appliqué and stitch. I hope to do a series of these for exhibition but find the canvas a bit hard on my hands so have to be really motivated by the image! I love dahlias and zinnias together and these are freshly picked from my allotment where I have a cutting garden.

Frida

I was at the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the V & A yesterday. Loved seeing her personal effects, particularly her sewing box and the little rag doll she had made. When I had put together my Frida Doll course I had not known that she made them too.
I learnt so much about Tehuana costume and was surprised at how rich the fabrics, weaving and embroidery were. In the photographs I have seen over the year it has always been the colour combinations that had impressed me so it was good to get so close to the fabric themselves .
Here is a link to the exhibition. They have extended the date slightly so you might be able to get tickets but be warned it is very busy.

Thread and Thrift place on course

A place has come up for my THREAD AND THRIFT course at The Hearth, Horsley, Northumberland on Sun 8th July. It is £50 for the day including materials. If you are interested please contact me through my website. here is the course description

"I have great respect for the culture of thrift and make do and mend practiced by previous generations in domestic settings and I try to continue this tradition by using what I already have, buying only second hand or incorporating gifted fabrics. Every piece of old fabric or needlework has a story to tell, particularly those created and found through unpicking old pieces of quilt and I collage these little bits of preciousness together into new patchworks which are further embellished with carefully chosen and lovingly work hand stitching. In this workshop you will build up one beautiful collage using old and new materials but if you want to turn it into something more functional I will also show you how to turn it into a little keepsake bag."

The whole story

You blog readers get to see every page of a little wallet book which I have just finished. It has been in progress for a couple of years because I find it difficult to work with green but I got there in the end and it is full of preciousness and tender detail.

For sale!

Just restocked my Etsy shop. I have had little time to make things to sell recently as I have been teaching many many workshops, preparing for Open Studios and of course gardening.
 Link to my shop HERE 

A new display in my studio

This afternoon I have been putting up a display in my studio of a set of new work - appliqués of animals based on a study of staffordshireware china. My daughter did a set of drawings of these and has lent me some of her original cut outs and drawings which I am showing alongside.
I am showing these this weekend for our Open Studios event and then they will be taken down and will not appear again till 2019 when I am going to have an exhibition of them and I hope by then I will have added a few more!

Summer Open Studios, new work

I am sorry I haven't been blogging quite so much recently. The apps for Blogger on my phone and iPad seem to be no longer compatible with Blogger and there doesn't seem to be an update available which means I can only blog now when I sit down at a computer.  I haven't been sewing that much anyway as I have been on the road teaching away from home and in between gardening. After the terrible long winter it has been a perfect Spring to get seeds and the allotment going and it is looking the best I think it ever has. Next weekend we have out Open Studios event and I shall be showcasing my complete collection of appliqués based on Staffordshireware and also the piece below which I have been working on for three or four months on and off. The pictures are not wonderful but I hope it gives you some idea.